Session Information
02 SES 08 C, Pathways and Transitions I: Orienting Towards VET
Paper and Ignite Talk Session
Contribution
The paper is related a study that analyzes patterns of benefit orientation in continuing education – both vocational and non-vocational – of addressees / participants and programme planners. The study aims at developing an educational theory of benefits in adult and continuing education based on six qualitative (contrastive) case studies in different areas and institutions of adult and continuing education. The research design and sample cover both participants and programme planners and it seeks to unfold and analyze perceptions of “benefits” of the two groups as well as benefit orientations in educational offerings and in the process of professional decision-making that is involved in programme planning.
The study is intended to contribute to the – growing but still small – corpus of qualitative research on the benefits of lifelong learning and adult and continuing vocational education. This is particularly important in a time of growing uncertainty when benefit orientations in decisions for the participation in adult and continuing education seem to become more of a driving factor. This means that we need to understand them in order to relate professional pedagogical action to them. Moreover, we need to know more about the perceptions of benefits after but also before participation in order to understand how these perceptions become patterns that are relevant for the decision to participate. Moreover, it is interesting how these perceptions of and orientations towards the benefits of lifelong learning interact with educational needs and learning interests, but also with perceptions of the learning contents as well as with learning outcomes such as competences and qualifications, as defined in lifelong learning discourses and policies across Europe.
As far as professional pedagogical action in this area goes it is important to a) analyze whether there is a match of the planners’ and the addressees’ perceptions and b) what professional programme planning in adult and continuing education can accomplish in order to both respond to and evoke such perceptions of benefits through planning creativity and imagination as well as planning skills such as a profound analysis of educational needs in the different (vocational and) learning areas. It is because of this theoretical assumption that a qualitative study on the patterns of participation in adult and continuing education calls also for a study on programme planning strategies and action. Such an analysis should be rooted in programme planning theory and take it further.
However, due to the depicted complexity of the study it is not possible to look at the learning processes over time and the ways in which benefit orientations are developed over time, sustained by learning environments and teaching staff. Participant interviews were collected at a point of the individuals’ participation in a class where initial orientations could only be reconstructed by them. Nonetheless, the participants that were interviewed were able to say something about those initial perceptions. Moreover, they were capable of naming first personal benefits that they discovered through the class to that point.
The paper will unfold this overall framework of the study and then turn to the results of the three case studies in the field of continuing vocational education from the sample. While using case study data from typical and yet heterogeneous institutions of continuing vocational education in Germany the European dimension of the study is obvious since different countries, despite their differences, are fighting with the same matters and consequences of uncertainty. More specificly, the data will also be discussed against the background of some findings of the “BeLL” study on the Benefits of Lifelong Learning that was carried out in ten European countries and funded by the EU (www.bell-project.eu).
Method
In order to gain a comprehensive but also detailed understanding of “benefits” in adult and continuing vocational education the study uses qualitative data and reconstructive data analysis as well as data interpretation. Moreover, it relies on theoretical reflections on the term “benefits” across the educational and interdisciplinary discourse. In a circular way of theoretical and empirical research both a model of “benefits” and a complex system of categories for the empirical study are developed of which the research instruments for the data collection and the data analysis are derived – but then extended in an inductive manner in the course of the research process. The study is based on an overall design of contrastive case studies in different areas and institutions of adult and continuing education – among them a sample of three different types of institutions that offer vocational continuing education. Using these cases I would like to find out whether there are areas and institutions of adult education where benefit orientations prevail, assuming that this is more true for continuing vocational education then i.e. for art and cultural education. However, participant interviews are treated as a second dimension of cases leading to the identification of profiles and patterns of benefit orientation on the addressees’ side. As a sampling strategy, theoretical sampling was used. Methods used in the study cover expert interviews with programme planners, semi-structured narrative-biographical interviews with participants, content and hermeneutic analyses of the interviews and of documents (advertising texts for the educational offerings).
Expected Outcomes
The study will shed light on - patterns, strategies and profiles of benefit orientations in continuing vocational education (participants and programme planners) - dimensions and profiles of benefit orientations (participants) - professional action, knowledge and imagination in the planning processes and how they relate to and evoke benefit orientations - contrastive findings on benefits and benefit orientations in different areas and types of institutions in (vocational) continuing education - how benefit orientations and expectations relate to learning needs and interests as well as learning contents – and how they intrigue the decision to participate as well as the evaluation of the learning content and environment in the course of the participation It will help to gain and to develop - a comprehensive and multifold understanding of “benefits” and the perception of benefits based on both qualitative data analysis and theoretical investigation - a complex instrument for the research of participation and programme planning in a multilevel research approach in continuing (vocational) education using sampling and data analysis strategies from qualitative research and taking them further, revealing the specifics of the field of adult and continuing education
References
Alheit, P. (2001): ‘Social Capital’, ‘Education‘ and the ’Wider benefits of Learning‘. New Perspectives of ‘Education‘ in a Modernised Modern Societies. In: Künzel, K. (Eds.): International Yearbook of Adult Education 28-29. Köln u.a., pp. 97–120 Behringer, F./Gnahs, D./Schönfeld, G. (Hrsg.) (2013): Segment: Individuelle berufsbezogene Weiterbildung. In: Bilger, F./Gnahs, D./Hartmann, J./Kuper, H. (Eds.): Weiterbildungsverhalten in Deutschland. Resultate des Adult Education Survey 2012. Bielefeld, pp. 164-171 Bilger, F., Schönfeld, G. (2017): Nutzen non-formaler Weiterbildung. In: Bilger, F., Behringer, F./Kuper, H./Schrader, J. (Eds.) (2017). Weiterbildungsverhalten in Deutschland 2016 – Ergebnisse des Adult Education Survey (AES). Bielefeld. DOI: 10.3278/85/0016w, pp. 117-133 Käpplinger, B. /Robak, S. /Fleige, M. /von Hippel, A. Gieseke/ W. (2017) (Eds.): Cultures of Program Planning in Adult Education: Concepts, Research Results and Archives. Frankfurt a.M.: Manninen, J./Sgier, I./Fleige, M./Thöne-Geyer, B./Kil, M. u.a. (2014): Benefits of Lifelong Learning in Europe: Main Results of the BeLL – Project Research Report. Bonn. URL: http://www.bell-project.eu/cms/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BeLL-Research-Report.pdf [Zugriff: 01.10.2014] Schrader, J. (2008): Steuerung im Mehrebenenmodell der Weiterbildung – ein Rahmenmodell. In: Hartz, S./Schrader, J. (Hrsg.) (2008): Steuerung und Organisation in der Weiterbildung. Bad Heilbrunn, pp. 31-64
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